How to Attract Freelancers on your Coworking Space

Considering the work nature and rising number of freelancers nowadays, a coworking space is what they need instead of coffee offices or homes. It’s a perfect place for them to stay productive without leaving their freedom as a freelancer. Many would like to work at home, but who would agree that working at home would compromise productivity. For this reason, freelancers should look for a good place to work to keep them motivated and avoid unnecessary distractions.

Even though freelancers aren’t working directly with other people, the good thing is that they’re still around other people. Your coworking space should have this sense of community for them to be involved in and look forward always as they visit your space. If freelancers can work either at home or at coffee shops, then as space owners, how can you attract them to work on your coworking space? Here are some ways to do it.

Offer Diverse Membership Packages

Many freelancers are doing their jobs part-time only. For this reason, your membership package should represent part-time options to allow flexibility. You can offer daily passes or present a limited amount of days each month when they can work in your space.

Make Google as your Marketing Tool

List your coworking space on Google. Include the opening hours, your space phone number, email and website details and allow your members to add their photos of the venue in the Google listing. This would help to build awareness and gain an online presence for your space. By creating an Adword campaign, you are reaching potential customers who are interested in coworking space.

Offer a Free Trial

Allow potential customers to spend one day at your space for free. This will give them a chance to have on-hand experience working in your space. At the same time, this will draw more prospective members.

Create a Referral Program

Offer discounts to members who bring their acquaintances and you’ll be amazed how useful this tactic is. You’ll be surprised that a percentage of these people are freelancers who are looking for space or just curious about how a coworking space environment might be. In any type of business, word of mouth is still the most effective delivery channel.

Social Media Presence

Create a social media account on Instagram and/or Facebook and put posts regularly with good quality photos or videos relevant to your space. Social media influence is very helpful in attracting potential members. Posting some of your services and the people inside your space will certainly gain an audience from prospective members. Also, be active in engaging with comments and answering inquiries to reflect on how engaging your activity on social media.

Host Useful Events

Host fun social events and practical workshops for non-members and you’ll see an influx of new members. In organizing an event, keep in mind that the sense of community matters in coworking space. Have events that encourage collaboration and networking among other coworkers from different industries. 

Partner with Local Business

Partner with restaurants, coffee shops, and fitness centers to offer your members special discounts at these venues. This way you both advertise your coworking space and these establishments will benefit as well.


Freelancers who work better in non-standard hours have the freedom to choose which place to work. Coworking space is not their only option. As space owner, you should market your coworking space with a good strategy. Be sure that the amenities you advertise are available and functional for their needs. Let your place promote community where they can be a part of, especially if they are not regular members of the space. 


Hot Desks vs Dedicated Desks: Which is Best to Offer?

Some will say hot desk is better than dedicated desks while others claim dedicated desks are way better. Well, there is no better superior option since each type of membership has its advantages and disadvantages. Let’s take a look and you can decide based on what is best for your space. 

Hot Desks

Hot desks are seating areas shared communally amongst a group of members. It is your on-demand workspace where coworkers would simply choose any open seat in your location to begin their work. Hot desks are ideal for freelancers, remote workers, small business owners, or business travelers in need of inspiring and vibrant spaces. This is perfect for those who need flexible and 24/7 coworking space access. 


Hot desks grant freedom to coworkers to choose where, when, and how they want to work within the space. They can choose to sit at a quieter place if they need concentration or for other days to sit around and chat with coworkers. This is offered to both full-time and part-time memberships. Through this kind of set-up, it increases the level of communication and collaboration among coworkers. It can lead to valuable conversations from different backgrounds and industries. 

This can be recommended to a larger team in your coworking space for project-based collaboration. Also, this is at a cheaper cost for the members since they do not have their dedicated spot and are sharing the cost of the space with fellow hot-desking members.


However, there are also drawbacks to hot desking. The recurring monthly revenue will be harder to predict since it varies from time to time. It is also difficult to foresee and accommodate coworkers during peak hours. Since members come and go, it will be a challenge to create a consistent community.

Dedicated Desks

Dedicated Desks are desk rented out to one specific individual. It is like giving a coworker a business home with a desk that is specifically reserved for them. Dedicated desks are for anyone who needed a reserved, permanent space where they can keep their belongings and return to every day. It is specifically equipped with a chair, trash can, and lockable filing cabinet and other important stuff to make the member at home. 


Dedicated desks are charged at a higher cost when compared to hot desks. This kind of membership enables to have anchors for your community since you will have consistent members who can grasp the vision and mission of your coworking space. As a space owner, you can offer your members additional security of their belongings to make them feel comfortable and relaxed. Offer your members a long term contract for you to have a more reliable recurring revenue plan.


There are also a few disadvantages with dedicated desks. This would require a more upfront commitment from your prospective members making them hard to get this type of membership. There might be fewer drop-ins and visitors to be part of the community. Also, it can be an additional expense since it requires additional security for storing items and allowing 24/7 access.

Why Not Choose Both?

Why choose one when you can have both this type of memberships in your coworking space. Most coworking spaces adapt the mix of hot desks and dedicated desks since they can work together to maximize the benefits of both memberships. Visit the site if WeWork where they have a mix of shared-workspaces in their coworking space. Offering both ensures you to attract a mix of members that can keep your community dynamic and your members engaged. In terms of revenue, it allows you to optimize your growth efforts from event rentals, drop-in visitors, and shorter-term memberships. When you have a mix of dedicated and hot desks, your community benefits the best of both and you can even experiment if which works the best in your specific location. 

Final Words

There are different needs of the members and the demand to compete with the rising coworking industry is also high. From the selection above, what fits you and your space best? The choice will be yours. In some areas, the combined approach might be a great idea. But for some, it might take to choose from either of it. Check our blog on The Different Membership Plans you can offer to your members to widen your choices. 


Credit Plans

Many space owners are requesting the ability to have Credit Plans aside from the recurring Plans alone. With the competition nowadays, it’s understandable that space owners would look for an opportunity to expand their service offering to cater to the demanding needs of the customers. Thus, we are so delighted to announce that we have released a new feature called Credit Plans.

What are Credit Plans

Credit Plans are rights that you give to your Members where they can use available ‘credits’ to book a particular resource. Credits in coworking spaces are essentially virtual money that members use to book resources such as conference rooms, desks, meeting rooms, and other products that space offers. Upon using the credits, it shall be deducted from the member’s credits wallet upon usage.


Benefits of Offering Credits in your Coworking Space

Advanced Payments and Reporting

Offering the credits system in your space brings payment in advance rather than an invoice that is paid usually at the end of the month. Members are to purchase a Credit Plan with a specific number of credits that can be used at a space to book resources. With the advanced payment, you can forecast the future purchase of members and guide you on the products and services that your members commonly use using their credits. These data are very helpful to determine important business decisions to make especially on catering to the needs of your members. 

Flexibility and Simplicity

Space owners have full control over the number of credits they want to sell on a particular Credit Plan. They can even change it from time to time if they see the demand for it from the members. It is also flexible in a way that members have the option to use the credits in booking resources or not. A member can but a number of credits and keep track of how many are used or the remaining balance. 


You can use credits as compensation if something goes wrong or to improve the experience of an unhappy member. Through credits as incentives, it will help to increase customer satisfaction by providing a certain number of free credits to new members. 

See this guide on How to Set Up Credit Plans

MailChimp Integration

Finally, we have launched a new integration! You can now integrate your Coworkify account to MailChimp.

What is MailChimp 

MailChimp is an all-in-one marketing platform that helps you manage and communicate with your clients, customers, and other interested parties. It is a web-based email-marketing service that gives you the ability to create and manage mailing lists, newsletters, automated marketing campaigns and more. 

With MailChimp, you can promote your business across email, social, landing pages, postcards, and more in one single platform.

Why Integrate Coworkify and MailChimp

Email Marketing is one of the tools that coworking spaces can use in their marketing strategies. It gives you direct access to your members or potential members on their private and personal communications. Also, it’s a fantastic way to enhance your brand to existing members as well as remarketing to lost leads, promoting special offers and discounts such as free trial days and offering leads a mention as part of your sales strategy. 

Through the integration, you are using this as a marketing opportunity to bring your space customers and make repeat sales to the same people. You can segment your list according to your coworking space accounts and prepare target emails for each segment. Take for example people who have visited your space and then didn’t visit again. You can prepare a specific newsletter just for them by offering a first month free or special discount. If you have special events in your coworking space, you can send out invitations to your existing members. 

MailChimp offers a wide variety of customizable templates for designing polished emails. You can build a professionally styled email template with MailChimp rather than using your email. Other than that, with this tool, it gives you an update on successful deliveries so you will know if people are reading your emails. 

And there’s so much more to discover as you integrate your coworking space with MailChimp.

See this guide on How to Integrate Coworkify to MailChimp.